I would guess that closing in cold temperatures is more for guest comfort, they also (at Thorpe anyway) have a pre-recorded announcement if it's raining that the ride may be uncomfortable. Phantasialand say they can run Taron (Intamin LSM) and Black Mamba (B&M) at -10c! Although that was during ...

Until they see a drop off in NPS score (or whatever metric Merlin use) that is DIRECTLY linked to ride operations/staffing/opening times don't expect much to change. I agree through that Alton Towers needs a higher operational budget especially as they run a pretty unique site compared to the other...

I think there's going to be lots of stacking on the MCBR and Brake Run with this system, no way will they be able to keep up throughputs. Not the best look with The Smilers history. No slidy doors on the cages either by the seems of it, expect people to pick up the wrong bag on the way out. Not to ...

The short of it is: Thorpe isn't as 'magical' as Towers. It's a lot more compact, chaotic and noisy. It doesn't have a central focus point (The Towers themselves), it isn't as relaxing as there are no quiet areas away from the crowds, no gardens or ponds etc. The areas are themed very loosely (wit...

Slightly unfair to use a dodgy photo of something that's not complete.

Looks like they're building it properly though, the building looks like it's built from breeze block and not a metal frame with cladding as I expected. Hopefully they'll put some actors up there to entertain the queueline.

A real shame, are they going to self batching maybe? It's not like it takes an extra member of staff to run a SRQ (assuming Fasttrack is operating). Another silly decision by Alton/Merlin. I guess that confirms that Wickerman won't have a SRQ too. EDIT AS TO AVOID DOUBLE POSTING Am I the only one wh...

Depends if you're there on a weekend or weekday. When I've been on a weekday (out of season) the queue for the monorail has been no more than about 15 minutes. I think the car park opens at 0830 (I think) so maybe aim for then, there's a small cafe by the monorail station if you get there early. The...

The VR headsets on Galactica are attached to the seats using velcro (or similar). I think the only additional wiring was to do with the battery pack and sensors. Seaworld actually replaced the handles on the restraints with a custom designed bit of metal work. No way was it designed by B&M, it l...

I rode Woden during the winter season and it was as smooth as any wooden rollercoaster I've ever ridden. It must be preventative retracking rather than reactive. It really is an amazing place. I visited Orlando for the first time earlier this year (Disney, Universal and Seaworld) and Europa Park is ...

I'm still confused why they picked Tower of Terror to be converted to GotG ride and not Rock 'n' Rollercoaster. I mean, Aerosmith were popular but are they anymore? Good to see some work taking place on Tower of Terror, it's been a few years since I've been to DLP but I love the way it's so imposin...

I agree with @lewis97, I find it unlikely it'll have an IP attached to it. It would create so much extra work for Merlin Making Magic too, placing extra design constraints on an already large and complicated project. When it takes months and dozens of design alterations to tweak the colour and desi...

Alton Towers You should be fine with lapbars (IIRC: The Mine Train and Thirteen). Nemesis and Oblivion both have big seats, use the Oblivion test seat as Nemesis doesn't have one. RITA is a bit hit and miss, some of the seats seem to have a shorter seatbelt than others. I fit in some and not othe...

'Return for free all season' I thought the season passes excluded the Halloween events + Weekends during the summer? Or have I missed something? This is the way forward I guess, very few parks outside of the UK offer bounce back tickets and most offer a 2 day pass with a small discount instead. Also...

I was there on Friday the 19th Jan and operations were DIRE. 2 trains both with VR, average time to dispatch was 4-5 minutes. They had VR on all rows and were preparing and cleaning each VR headset no matter if you wore it or not. I worked out (because I was bored) that at 5 minute dispatches the t...

Yeah, I think Gardaland would be a more likely choice. It could however be as part of a multi-buy as we've seen before (3x B&M Wing Coasters, 2x Intamin Accelerator etc). I still think a nice non-inverting mega/hyper coaster is the more likely choice. Thorpe already has 2x sitdown multi loopers ...